Save ‘Sanditon’! Jane Austen Fans Start Petitions to Demand ‘Sanditon’ Season 2

Sanditon is officially over. At least, that’s what the powers that be over at ITV and Masterpiece on PBS have said. But the fans aren’t taking it. Besides championing the show on social media, some Sanditon fans have gone so far as to start Change.org petitions to save Sanditon. One such petition addressed to British network ITV has already accumulated over 32,000 signatures in support.

Sanditon is an adaptation of Jane Austen’s final unfinished novel. The author had begun work on the project — which featured her first ever Black heroine – in the months before her death and the story’s set up has intrigued fans for centuries. A young woman named Charlotte Heywood helps rescue an entrepreneur named Tom Parker and his wife from a carriage crash. To thank her, Mr. Parker invites Charlotte to be their guest at a seaside resort he’s investing in called Sanditon. There, Charlotte encounters fortune hunters, a Caribbean heiress, and Mr. Parker’s own handsome brother, Sidney. This basic set up intrigued legendary British television writer Andrew Davies, who created Sanditon and envisioned it as an ongoing series.

Davies wrote the Sanditon Season 1 finale in the hopes that British broadcaster ITV and PBS would pick up the series for a second season. However ITV decided to not pick up the show for an addition season, leaving the show’s finale feeling abrupt and heartbreaking. Fans have now started a number of petitions to save Sanditon Season 2. One is addressed to PBS Masterpiece, but the most popular one to date is directed at ITV.

“The finale of Sanditon (series 1) was unfair, unjust, and unsatisfying. It doesn’t end like a true Austen adaptation – it feels like it’s ended halfway through the series,” writes the petition’s creator, Isabel King.

However, the writers of both petitions don’t just want a second season of Sanditon. They have a series of requests. Both petitions want to see Charlotte and Sidney get a happily ever after, Miss Lambe play a more central part in the story, and to see Mrs. Campion get the boot. However, should Sanditon be renewed for a second season, that last part could prove awkward as Ruth Kearney, the actress who plays Eliza Campion in the show, is star Theo James’s real life wife.

As of right now, there are no plans for Sanditon to return, but perhaps the fans could prevail. As creator Andrew Davies himself told Decider in January, “Hang on in there. Keep giving the show all your love because we’d love to give you lots more of it.”

You can stream Sanditon on PBS.org or on the Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. Masterpiece Prime Video Channel subscribers and PBS Passport subscribers can binge the whole season right now.

Where to stream Sanditon